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Cassander Di Angelo, from “Thus Saith The Lord: Book I : 2”

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your stories sound really interesting. if you have a taglist for excerpts, i'd love to be added!

I'll definitely make a taglist and add you to it. Thank you for your interest in my writing, it means a lot!

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Tag Game: Author Ask Tag

I am late at this but thank you to @tildeathiwillwrite for the tag.

Question Template: 1. What is the main lesson of your story? Why did you choose it? 2. What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding? 3. What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness or help the reader grow as a person? 4. How many chapters is your story going to have? 5. Is it fan fiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it? 6. When did you start writing? 7. Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr? What other writers do you follow?

What is the main lesson of your story?

When I started, I didn't write with a clear message to communicate, but that's the beauty of it: in good novels, the message will find it's way from your subconscious into the page. It is effortless. And I believe, many different things happened there. But as pretentious as it'll sound, I do not think it is right to tell people what to get out of a story. I like art that respect its audience's intelligence. People are intelligent enough to derive their own interpretation from what they read, whether it was what I intended or not. As Margaret Atwood once said, you do not put out one book into the world, you put out millions, for your book will be interpreted differently by every single person who reads it. It's out of your control. It's not yours anymore.

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding?

I romanticise the gothic, architecture, the old, and the melancholic a whole lot. I like to daydream about places, whether real or not, about gloomy weather, and I have a certain fondness for aesthetics as long as they do not bind me. I simply came up with places I'd like to be sad in lol. And decided to make my sad and lonely characters live there.

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness or help the reader grow as a person?

Oliver, my main character in Thus Saith The Lord, clearly suffers from what is known as Bovarysme. The condition is often described as being a state of emotional and social dissatisfaction, seen in particular in certain young neurotic people, which results in vain and excessive ambitions, and an escape into the imaginary and romance. Like Emma Bovary, he wants to live. He falsely believe that his unhappiness is indigenous to that place he's stuck in — his family home, the countryside he grew up in. He looks to the external to fulfill him internally, and because of this, as well as the belief that he'll die at home if he doesn't get out one way or another, he thinks leaving is the only way to be truly happy. That life will be better somewhere else. That it has to be, right? He has all those ideas of what the city is like based on what other people told him and what he read in books and watched on TV, about the way his life will surely take off if he just flees his hometown, how he'll finally feel free. That's what pushed him down that road in the first place. And while it does certainly start to take off at some points in the story, reality quickly shows him that he is unprepared for that world and so starts a series of disappointments and bad choices which, ultimately, lead him to his own downfall.

As for what my motivations are, you can read all about it here.

How many chapters is your story going to have?

Ten.

Is it fan fiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Original content, always. And I plan to post the very first version on Substack. I'll keep the final, revised version for traditional publishing.

When did you start writing?

I was around nine when I started writing my first novel, though I was already telling stories and writing lyrics prior to that. It was a fantasy novel about a girl named Patricia who ended up joining a little group of creatures and sorcerers as they embarked on a journey to look for a mythological stone that a villain and his army were also looking for. I can't remember why exactly they were looking for it nor what were the properties of this stone but I remember it beared the name Helios because it shone like the sun and I also remember getting the idea for it after watching Barbie Mariposa, with its Illios antidote. I wrote 100+ pages. My parents read it and apparently that's when they realised I was actually surprisingly skilled at it. I never finished it though, for around that time I was still learning about what genres I liked to read and write, and fantasy was not something I had fun writing unfortunately. But it made me realised that writing was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr? What other writers do you follow?

Trust yourself, goes for writing and pretty much anything else in life. Do not forget that whatever the mind can conceive, the mind can achieve, have the guts to get it done and put your whole being to it. There'll always be someone to read you.

I follow way too many so I apologise in advance if I didn't put everyone but the first ones that cross my mind are:

@inkedwingss @mysteryofvampires @theink-stainedfolk @goodluckclove @words-after-midnight

@illarian-rambling @drchenquill @isabellebissonrouthier @aalinaaaaaa @nbwriteschaos

@messrsage @monomorphilogical @seraphinesaintclair @dellevigne @mikathewriter

@francineiswriting @monstrousorchids @hellisheavenwithyou @syrensaft @rcsthewriter

@faeriecinna @amaralionelli @poethill @apolline-lucy @spideronthesun

Tagging anybody who wants to do it of course.

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you make me want to be more creative learn languages and write more (even though i lack the motivation lol) 💖

Wanting is easy. Do you have the guts to get it done?

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝕴𝖘𝖓'𝖙 𝖎𝖙 𝖔𝖇𝖛𝖎𝖔𝖚𝖘? 𝕴'𝖒 𝖆 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍!

This is a little edit I made back in 2019 or 2020, I think. You can still see my old name because I lost the original file but simply ignore it. I'll probably try to remake it one day.

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You know, I see a lot of people going around saying things such as “A draft is not meant to be perfect!”, and yes, I do agree. A draft is not meant to be perfect. But I believe it is also important not to fall in the opposite end of perfectionism, that careless, lazy tendency to half-ass one's work. Many talk about leaving empty space, having a whole chapter be only a bulleted list or even write as fast as possible so that it's done. Because done is better than perfect, right? Once again, balance. Do it, but do it well. Don't half-ass it just for the sake of saying you did it. The work you're avoiding now, you'll have to do it later anyway.

My drafts need to look like a proper story. I am unable to work on a poorly written draft. If the draft feels like a draft, — messy, unfinished sentences, no rhythm, no structure — it is terrible to me. I simply cannot work on it, and would refuse to anyway. My first version needs to feel clean, structured and close to what I would want already. Then, the second version — and all the versions after that — is about polishing it. That way, the editing process is not painful because 80% is done already. All that's left is polishing, whether it be addition, correction, or cutting passages.

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It's Halloween and I'm using this opportunity to say thank you and I love you to you.

You are one of my favourite mutuals and I am glad to know you here!

You are the best writer I know and I hope for you that you'll get successfull, because you truly deserve it!!

Love you so much 🩷

Oh, damn. How am I seeing this just now!? This is literally the sweetest thing I've been sent, thank you so much. I'll use this occasion to thank you you too, because you were one of my very first mutuals when I created this blog and I am so grateful for your support and all our interactions. It really means a lot. I am always so happy when I see you in my notifications or dashboard. I really hope you'll get all the success you deserve as well and that life will treat and bless you in the most wonderful ways. You truly deserve it. Love you so much too <3

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The Books I Read or Re-Read During The Writing of My Novel

Whenever I work on a project, I tend to read the books that influenced me most in my own writing or books that are thematically relevant to what I am working on. Thus, I present to you the books I have read or re-read that have influenced and shaped Thus Saith The Lord. Please note that, since it'll take a few years before the completion of my novel, I will keep updating this list.

The Holy Bible

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The Trouble With Being Born, Emil Cioran.

On The Heights of Despair, Emil Cioran.

The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The Secret History, Donna Tartt.

Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre.

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert.

The Anti-Christ, Friedrich Nietzsche.

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh.

Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov.

The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinurus, Cyril Connolly.

Stoner, John Williams.

My Mother, George Bataille.

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Cassander Di Angelo, from “Thus Saith The Lord: Book I."

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Cassander Di Angelo, from “Thus Saith The Lord: Book I.”

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Happy STS! Are any of your characters based on people you know/knew/met irl (whether loosely or specifically)?

warning: long rambling and probably a bit senseless because I can't think today.

Hello, you!

Real life is the greatest source of inspiration. I believe that to write characters that feel real, one must draw from real life. I suppose it is not surprising if I tell you that that all my characters are inspired by real-life people: me, my family, my friends, the toddlers I babysit, the people I met online, and even complete strangers that I have observed whenever I'm out. Writing good characters, characters that'll remain with the reader long after they finished their reading, demands a keen eye, an openness, and a certain objectivity.

To take my main novel for example, a lot of Oliver's thoughts, fears, and memories are directly taken from my diaries from a certain time in my life. His life at the beginning of the novel — in a small village, living with his parents who barely seem to care about him, and an overwhelming desire to leave this place and experience something new in a way only Emma Bovary could understand —, that too is inspired by my own life. And it doesn't necessarily stop to characters. Oliver wants to flee his house every time he looks out the window in his kitchen. Why? Because from there, he can see the church from the village he lives in and he fears he'll die before he ever got to leave this place, and will be buried in the church's cemetery. I suppose you won't be too surprised if I were to tell you that from my kitchen we can indeed see the Church of the village I live in, standing tall and menacing like a bad omen. He loves modernist poetry, I do too. At some point in the story, he gets gastritis from stress. I had to go through this ordeal last year too lmao. Of course, he's not the only one to have bits and pieces of me.

Wilhelm does too, although his traits are mine but exaggerated. His moral nihilism, his tendency to be quiet, his apathy, his rarefied talent for secrecy. But also, the way he learns languages to pass the time and, as a result, became a polyglot. He cannot hear too well from his left ear — I had too many otitis as a child and it damaged mine too. He fears reincarnation — this, I did too at some point. The idea of my soul just hopping into another body every time I died, even if I were to kill myself, and being unable to stop this loop didn't sit with me very well.

I'd say most of my characters have bits and pieces from me, but they do so in varying degrees. Oliver and Wilhelm are, quite obviously, the ones with the highest quantity while the other characters have some but it's more like added details, you know. After all, I'm the one to write them and, I suppose, it simply slips out. Sometimes, when I enter a room, I tend to open the door by lazily giving it a hit with my shoulder. This is something I didn't know I did until my sister pointed it out. This, for example I gave it to James. In our house, we can always hear music coming from my room, including a lot of classic records, that too, I gave James. He doesn't like being talked to in the morning, neither do I. But a lot comes from other people I've known throughout my life. The way James likes to read a certain genre of books, generally vintage sci-fi/horror: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank; Swan Song by Robert McCammon — this one, James actually buys it during the story —; Strange Eons by Robert Bloch; The Incredible Melting Man by Phil Smith; Horror House by J. N Williamson; The Cats by Nick Sharma; but also books by P.G Wodehouse sometimes, too. I knew a guy like that who would read nothing else but those books. The way James can be easily irritable. This comes from my father. His love for animals, — petting every cat he meets and even discussing with birds — it comes from my brother. The way he sits, holds his cigarette, and stands — it all comes from different people's I've observed whether in my circle or outside while I was grocery shopping or going out somewhere. And this is generally the case for most of my characters, really. They're a carefully crafted mix of all those people that crossed my path. You could be smoking a cigarette in front of me right now and I'd be observing the way you hold it, what brand you smoke, the way the smoke moves around you, the way you move, what you say and how you say it — I'd be taking notes in my mind and giving it to a character.

Now, I rarely have a character that's based entirely on one person only for that book. But it does happen. Oliver's parents are strictly based on my own. Donna, who was supposed to be a minor character but finally ended up being more important than I had originally planned, was, in a high degree, based on my best friend the same degree that Oliver was mostly based on me. Her height, her tooth gap, the sound of her voice, the way she speaks, her red hair, her obsession with movies but also the way she's easily scared of horror ones, her zine that she discreetly distributes to other students... All those things are based on my best friend.

I am just enumerating a few details here and there but there are so many. However, it'd be far too long if I were to keep going and go over all my other characters. And this post is already getting too long. So, I am going to leave you with this:

I think I've already said it on my blog but I strongly recommend writers to journal a lot. You never know when a certain thought can be thought by one of your characters later on. I record everything in there, all in past tense, as if it were a novel — conversations I had; taking note of the way people talk, or move; places; weird dreams I had; thoughts; feelings; ideas; even the weather, for it exercises my description skills. Anything and everything really. It's an excellent exercise but also, I found, an excellent place to put observations and details that will help shapes future characters et hoc genus omne.

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Excerpt from Thus Saith The Lord, chapter 1.

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do you listen to music when writing ? what songs have been inspiring you at the moment ?

I prefer to write in silence, but sometimes it does happen that I listen to music while writing. Rarely, but it happens, especially if it's tied to a scene. I noticed, though, that music inspires me when I am not writing. It makes me visualise scenes I could write about, or details for characters, or places.

As for the music that's been inspiring me lately: a lot of Glenn Gould, his recordings of the partitas especially; Bruno Coulais' In Memoriam; some Sibelius; Bach's Mass in B Minor; Angelo Nicola Giuliano's Equilibrium; Schubert's Serenade... Of course, there are more. But these in particular have been on repeat for the last couple of days. I also listen to the playlist I made specifically for Thus Saith The Lord. Each track corresponds to a character or to a specific scene.

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Hello! 👋 What motivates/inspires you to write and keep writing?

For one, I cannot not write. I am a storyteller, I've always been, ever since I was a child and I'd go as far as to say that it's literally in my blood. As a child, I used to write plenty: short stories; novels; poems, that I would hang on the door to my bedroom; but also and this, all of my family remembers it, I used to improvise stories aloud for my siblings. Oh, well, you can imagine they were all silly stories (I was only a child trying to entertain smaller children after all), but it doesn't change the fact that I was still expressing my nature, as a storyteller. I don't think this is something that'll ever leave me — how does one escape themselves?

One of the things that motivates me is giving to other people as much as I give to myself through my writing. For my novel to be the reason they stay up at night reading or do not hear their mothers calling to them that the dinner's ready. To bring them into another world, even for a brief instant, and make them forget about their reality. And if they don't forget, to have them feel seen, or come to terms with their own feelings, the way Fyodor Dostoevsky has more than once helped many of us throughout the centuries. Which brings me to these quotes by James Baldwin:

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important.”

This, exactly this, is what motivates me most, aside from the sheer joy of creation.

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I am invading askboxes today! Please accept this question;

What genre are you interested in writing in, but haven't tried?

Quite frankly, I don't even think I've read too many of them but historical fiction sounds very interesting to me. What I'll say might sound disturbing but I've always been morbidly interested in historical figures such as The Marquis de Sade, for example. Perhaps write something that's set during the events of 1789 in France, with themes of libertinism, depravation, morality and hedonism? And make it a novel in the vein of De Navarre's Heptameron at the beginning but have it slowly descend into a more complex narrative as the corruption grows? I'm thinking about it.

Another thing I would love to write is a Southern Gothic novel. I am really into novels such as A Choir of Ill Children, The Devil All The Time, Wise Blood, and Child of God. I am absolutely into it even, to the point that it is actually difficult to believe that I haven't written anything in this vein yet.

Romance is a genre I am not generally interested in, particularly because I think I am quite awful at it and also, I must admit it, this is not the genre of books I pick up of my own volition. Nevertheless, I like the idea of writing something deemed as ‘romance’, but that is just as evil, twisted and taboo as Brontë's Wuthering Heights or even Nabokov's Lolita — which, let's remind it for the late crowd, is not a romance. And to be honest, this is what I intend for my still untitled novel to be. I want to write an unfathomably terrible novel, to write evil in all its nuances. Not demons nor serial killers, for my conception of evil here is found in human relationships. I want violence, betrayal, incestuous love, perfidy! And I want to fool you into thinking this is a love story.

This last one is very ambitious, but if I ever feel bold enough, and if I ever get an idea that permits it, I'd like to write an epic poem or a play in verses — with dactylic hexameter and all, I mean, and certainly not poetry à la Rupi Kaur. Works like Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy, The Aeneid and The Iliad are often in my mind. There's tremendous beauty in them, tremendous humanity and violence also, in their poetry. This is something I'd be ready to spend over a decade on if I'm ever blessed with the inspiration to write it. Although, of course, I am aware this is perhaps not the kind of things a modern audience would find pleasure in reading.

I don't know how many of these I'll actually get to write, nor do I know if I'll write them at all, but we'll see. Fate always has an enchanting way of surprising us.

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cass my love oh my god??? I just read your excerpt and holy fuck i need you to be published ASAP RIGHT NOWWWWW

Amazing Showstopping Brilliant I’m in awe of you everyday

Jess my beloved!! Thank you so much for your support oh my god it means so much to me. ISTG ONE DAY YOU'LL HOLD IT IN YOUR HANDS AND I'LL WRITE A LITTLE MESSAGE IN IT JUST FOR YOU

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Cassander Di Angelo, from “Thus Saith The Lord: Book I”